Bar-box and bottle-closing means.



No. 686,223. Patented Nov. 5', MN. J.'T. HICKS.

BAR BOX AND BOTTLE CLOSING MEANS.

(Application filed .nm. 21, 1901.

(No Modal.)

WITNESSES UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN TYLER HICKS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE HOTEL SECURITY CHECKING COMPANY, OF PORTLAND, MAINE; BOSTON, MAS- SACHUSETTS, ANDNEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

BAR-BOX AND BOTTLE-CLOSING MEANS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 686,223, dated November 5, 1901.

Application filed January 21, 1901. Serial No. 43,999. (No model.)

My present invention has reference to a bar:

box for use in bars, restaurants, cafs, and other places where liquors and similar goods are dispensed or sold; and it relates more particularly to means arranged in connection with the refrigerating-chamber of the barbox for effectually closing the mouth of the bottles from which drinks are being served from time to time,such closing means or stopper devices, as they may be called, being attached to the refrigerating-chamber or some portion thereof, one of the essential ideas in the improvement being the carrying of the bottle to the stopper instead of the placing of the stopper into the mouth of the bottle whenever it is desired to close and tightly se cure the contents of the latter, and the invention consequently consists, essentially, in an improved bar-box and bottle closing or stopper means, and in numerous details and peculiarities thereof, substantially as will be '30 hereinafter more fully described and then particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a small bar-box or ice-chest for useincon- 3 5 nection with bars. Fig. 2 is a vertical crosssection of the same. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the sliding bottle-carrying frame, which is arranged within the ice-chamber of the bar-box. Fig. 4 is a detailed view of yield- 40 ing stopper devices which are arranged in the ice-chamber for closing the bottles when the latter are in their proper position in the chamber. Fig. 5 is a modification of the stopper device.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout all the different figures of the drawings.

A designates the bar-box orsmall refrigerator used in connection with the bar for the purpose of holding bottled goods, such box having front sliding doors B B, which permit access to the interior ice-chamber 0. Below the chamber C is the ice-box D, which contains a quantity of broken or crushed ice which has been prepared for use in cooling drinks, the quantity of ice being of easy access from the doors B B, so that it can be shoveled or scooped out whenever needed for use. The meltage from the ice-boxD passes ofi through the waste-pipe 1) into the ice-water chamber E, that has an overflow pipe a. The water in chamber A will be cold at all times, for it will be receiving continuously accessions of very cold water through the waste-pipe 1).

Within the refrigerator chamber C is a sliding frame G, which is adapted to slide back and forth between the rear of the chamber and the doors B B, so as to bring the bottles close to the front of the bar-box whenever required. Said frame G is of rectangular form and has a skeleton back consisting of a board or plate I, having vertical slots i. At the lower side of frame G is a horizontal skeleton platform or shelf H, having a front beveled or inclined edge H, and provided with a series of openings h h h. A series of short partitions J is arranged on the shelf H to subdivide the length of the latter into a series of uniform spaces allotted to the reception of bottles, as N, there being at the rear side of each of these spaces a ledge or stop j, which prevents the bottle from being pushed too far against the rear plate I. Thus it will be seen that the construction of the frame G and the shelf H provides a series of pockets that receive a row of bottles, and each bottle sits firmly upon the horizontal surface of the shelf I-I after it is located in' position. The openings h, as well as the vertical slots t', are for the purpose of permitting a free circulation of the cold air around through all parts of the chamber 0 and on all sides of the bottled goods contained therein.

In Fig. 2 I have shown in dotted lines how the position of the frame G may be shifted from the extreme rear of chamber 0 to a place near the front of said chamber.

On the under side of the top of frame G and over each of the pockets or spaces allotted for the reception of the bottles Nthat is to say, centrally above the openings h or centrally above the point where the center of the bottle will be on the shelf H after the bottle has been located in position on said shelfis a yielding stopper device that is carried by the frame G and into conjunction with which the mouth of the bottle is placed when it is itself placed on the shelf. This stopper device may be built in a variety of different ways. One form is shown in Fig. 4 and another in Fig. 5. The form in Fig. 4 consists of a lever K, which is pivoted at luto a lug on the under side of the top of frame G. The outer end of the lever K carries a cap L, having a rubber lining Z, said cap L being designed to fit over the mouth of the bottle, and aspring L or other yielding device is interposed between the end of the lever K and the under side of the top of frame G, said spring serving to exert a yielding downward pressure upon the cap L, so as to effect a tight closure of the cap over the bottlemouth.

In Fig. 5 the top of frame G is provided on its under side merely with an inserted piece of rubber or other elastic substance M, against which the bottle-mouth may be tightly pressed when the bottle is being placed on the shelf. I reserve the liberty of making numerous equivalent bottle-closing devices, so long as I preserve the idea of having the stopper or closure device as the stationary part and the bottle the movable part or, in other words, applying the bottle to its stopper instead of applying the stopper to the bottle, as is the customary method.

In the, dispensing of beverages from a bar in a hotel, restaurant, or similar place it is customary to have a number of bottles containing different beverages, which bottles have had their original seals broken, from which drinks are dispensed from time to time as they may be called for. This is the class of bottles that I provide my stopper device for use with, because such bottles are commonly left exposed without being replaced in a refrigerating-compartment, and such exposure not only attracts flies and other insects, but allows the contents to deteriorate by getting warm and otherwise becoming injured. Now such bottles with my present improvement may be replaced quickly and easily in the refrigerating-chamber, and in thus replacing them I first cause the mouth of the bottle to engage the yielding stopper, which is the cap L or the elastic seat M or such other yielding closure as may be employed, and then I cause the bottom of the cline H, the stopper device will have been sufficiently compressed and tightly seated upon the bottle -moutl1 as to effect an extremely tight closure of such month. The bottle can be removed as easily from the shelf H as it is placed thereon. By my improved construction of the bar box the chamber containing the broken ice is easily approached for the purpose of icing a drink. The short partitions J keep the bottles sufficiently far apart and do not interfere with the grasping of the proper part of the bottle in withdrawing or replacing it in position.

F- designates a beer-faucet on the end of a beer-pipef, which runs from some suitable source of supply, and this pipe I preferably coil at f in the ice-supply D at the bottom of the ice-chamber O, and also I provide pipe f with another and larger coil f located Within ice-water supply E. Thus by my neat and compact arrangement of the bar-box and its several parts I am enabled to keep the length of the beer-pipe between the source of supply and the faucet cooled at all times by passing it through the refrigerating agents, as stated.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with a refrigeratingcompartment, of a bottle-stopping means arranged as one of the fixtures of the compartment, a bottle-support below said means, said support having an inclined surface at an angle to the axis of the bottle when the latter is in its normal position, and upon which incline the bottom of the bottle rises in compressing the stopping means into the mouth of the same.

2. The combination with a refrigeratingcompartment, of a movable bottle-carrying frame therein bottle-closing devices arranged yieldingly on said frame, and a shelf in the frame having an inclined surface at an angle to the axis of the bottle when the latter is in its normal position, and upon which incline the bottom of the bottle rises when the bottle is placed in the position for the purpose of causing its mouth to engage tightly with the closing devices, as set forth.

3. The combination with a stationary yielding or elastic bottle-closing means, of a bottle-support opposite said means, said support having an inclined surface at an angle to the axis of the bottle when the latter is in its normal position, and-upon which incline the bottom of the bottle rises for the purpose of cansing the stopping means to engage its mouth.

4. In a refrigerator for a bar or the like, an ice-chamber for receiving broken ice used for cooling drinks, an adjustable frame above the ice, yielding or elastic bottle-closing means arranged on the frame, in connection with which means the mouths of the bottles are adapted to be brought, and a shelf having an inclined surface-which is at an angle to the bottom of the bottle when the latter is in its normal position, said inclined surface having the function of permitting the rising of the bottle thereon for the purpose of causing the closing means to becompressed tightly against 10 or into the mouth of the bottle.

Signed at New York this 26th day of October, 1900.

JOHN TYLER HICKS.

Witnesses:

T. ALLSTON BROWN, FRED E. TASKER. 

